State of Decay targeting June 5 launch (update: confirmed)

Undead Lab's Jeff Strain confirmed the studio is targeting a June 5 launch date for State of Decay, which is currently in the final phase of certification, according to a post on the developer's official website.

The date was leaked in early May by a GameStop listing, which Undead Labs noted would not be official until the game passed certification. Strain noted that June 5 is a date the company has been "shooting for internally."

"Is June 5 the release date for State of Decay?" Strain wrote. "I sure as hell hope so."

In the post, Strain explains the certification process for publication on Xbox 360. All games must meet certain technical certification requirements regarding how the software interacts with Microsoft's hardware. Strain wrote there are "several hundred" of these requirements, including ones for how a game handles a controller disconnecting and proper terminology for the controller's buttons, and all games must pass through all of them. Titles must be tested to ensure games are packaged to run on the system properly, comply with all technical requirements and are completely playable.

According to Strain, State of Decay is in the final "Functional" testing phase of certification as of May 31. The game is expected to launch the first Wednesday after certification, which Undead Labs is "hoping" will be June 5.

"While we don't have a definitive timeframe to complete Functional testing, our hope and expectation is it will be early next week," he wrote. "If that happens, and if the game does not fail certification, then we may indeed meet our target date. It's widely known XBLA updates on Wednesdays, so if we miss that target date, we'll retarget for the following Wednesday, and keep at it until we get it done."

Strain noted that only the discovery of a "serious bug" could make State of Decay fail certification, and mentioned the PC version of the game is still in development.

Update: Microsoft's Larry Hryb tweeted that State of Decay will hit Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, June 5 for $20 (1600 Microsoft Points).